The original American spacecraft celebration: Explorer 1

NASA

The original American spacecraft celebration: Explorer 1

At a 1958 press conference following the launch of Explorer 1, three key team members triumphantly hoist a full-scale model of the satellite for the media. From left to right: William H. Pickering, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Dr. James Van Allen, University of Iowa physicist; Wernher von Braun, designer of the Explorer 1's Jupiter-C launch vehicle.